5GoldGlovesOF,75

I got a guy. He had a career WAR of 13.9, but was at about 10 when Boston traded for him. Flaherty's career WAR is currently 12.5. The comp's WAR only peaked at seasons of 2.4 and 2.3, which is what Flaherty already has in Detroit this year. Flaherty also had one WAR of 5.8 in the season he finished fourth in Cy Young voting and received NL MVP votes. Last clue, the pitcher the Sox actually traded for was a 37-year-old reliever, and not a 28-year old starter. Like Flaherty, though, he was also an impending free agent, but signed elsewhere after only pitching about a month in Boston. And for that, they only traded Jeff Bagwell...

Of course not. But identifying a star outfielder is easier these days than rolling the dice on starting pitchers -- because virtually all the best and most established are major injury risks and could blow out their elbows (even reconstructed ones) at any time. I can see signing free agent pitchers for big money, because it's very hard to stay competitive if you don't... (and we shall soon see if Bailey's boys hang in there all season long). I just wouldn't trade away core position players with All-Star profiles for them, since regulars are much more reliable to post up every night.

I predict Breslow will add to the rotation, and the guy I pick to join Boston soon is a battle-worn 6'5, 230-lb left-hander: Austin Gomber, 30, pending free agent, is the NL leader in home runs allowed. But he plays for last-place Colorado and has 1.6 WAR, which is better than any Red Sox pitcher not named Houck or Crawford. Gomber has a 4.61 ERA playing half his games at Coors, and doesn't walk batters (2.258 per 9, better than all Sox but Houck). Maybe Bailey remembers him, and has a plan. Gomber may be more costly than I thought. According to his splits, his ERA is only 3.28 in the 10 games he threw to catcher Elias Diaz... and over 6.00 in the rest of his games to other catchers. So to do it right, the Sox should also insist Diaz is part of the deal. He was an All-Star last year, but also a free agent at the end of this season, so probably available... This is about as high as I can raise my deadline anticipations, having survived the past half decade of the Bloom Era.

After watching video of Roman Candle Anthony going off with the longball to win the Futures Skill Comp, I can't digest any scenario where trading him is a good idea. I grew up rooting for and being entertained by 30-homer hitting Red Sox outfielders, and an All-Star catcher, so I confess I'd really like Boston to hang onto Anthony and Kyle Teel. If Breslow has to swap a top prospect -- a guy whose return can make the team appreciably better now and in the future -- than I would deal Mayer. Plenty of World Champs have won with glove-first shortstops, and there are always plenty of those guys available. Reports speculating Mayer is a candidate to move to third base or another position aren't reassuring. A trade for Crochet doesn't guarantee anybody a playoff spot this year, anyway... as his innings pitched totals approach career highs, just like Houck and Crawford. And I'm sure some posters have seen Fangraphs ratings of hardest second-half schedules. Ya, we're #1, baby...

What does one have to do with the other? Haven't you been watching the past half decade!

Sorry, I see it now. Note: Portland used Campbell at SS while Mayer was away at the Future Games.

When I was 23, my hamstrings promised they wouldn't roll and feel like they were ripping off the bone while lying on the couch watching the Red Sox until I was 43.

Not even a mention of the possibility of Campbell in Boston next year? KC gets better every month. At this rate, he'll be hitting .500 by the end of August in Woo, then .600 in Fenway in the pennant run, .700 in Fall Ball, .800 in Winter Ball, and .900 in the Citrus League. I mean, if Nick Yorke has a shot at the majors soon, then Campbell certainly does; they're both 22 years old. Is this a fanboy site or at least a manboy site? Or what.

The list of Cheapies were definitely scrap-heap flea-market pick-ups -- and they don't have to equate to full-fledged members of any starting rotation to come from dumpsters. Sure, GMs sign castoffs from waiver wires all the time -- especially relievers -- and sometimes find a pearl -- or a Luis Tiant -- but longtime Red Sox fans have to admit the past half decade has looked more like a Barrel Full of Monkeys than Connect Four (or five or six for modern rotations).

The premise is that pitchers and catchers know what pitch they're going to throw, while the hapless hitter has nothing but reactions or guesses... ... unless, of course, someone on the offense can break the secret codes of the battery -- now armed and headed with electronic communication devices; baseball refers to that as sign stealing, but it has to be in a way that is deemed legal stealing... (Why aren't the batter and his coaches allowed to be fitted with devices of their own, then? Not that it would matter to mere mortals, who could be told by the pitcher they're getting a fastball upwards of 100 mph right down the middle, and still not be able to make contact)

What do I know -- it's not like I've been working in big-market Boston's front office the past half decade, peering in cans and bins near the curbs of every driveway on garbage day for projectable pitchers scraped off the plates of all-night diners.

Not in the middle of a playoff run, not even for Garrett Crochet, do you trade the heart and sole of your team.

Move on? How about just move him -- anywhere! But I'm glad to admit my mistake, and already praised him before this All-Star MVP year for turning around his career and being a role model for improving life. And I still think Duran is underrated -- at least by some fans, who may have no idea how rare it is to have a player on their side who can bounce a base-hit up the middle and surprise the ballpark by roaring into second base with a hustle double! While I'm at it, there's another guy I was wrong about -- the other key to the Red Sox offense. Looking at the lefty-heavy batting order, and seeing absolutely no one would could legitimately protect Rafael Devers in the line-up, I doubted he'd have a good season when pitchers had zero reason to ever throw him a strike. But here's the thing: they still don't - and it doesn't matter! Only Devers swings away at waste pitches and balls outside the zone... and blasts them out of the park. Second-half prediction: Raffy will lead the AL in intentional walks or hit by pitches. Or both.

But maybe (Will will say) he'll find the next Jenny Dell.

I've just always felt that since pitching is name-the-number times more important than anything else in baseball, the easiest trade capital for an organization to horde is a surplus of (preferably college) arms. Then again, since you can never have enough pitching, most conservative CBOs worrying about their jobs may be just as hesitant to deal them. It really comes down to two things: personality and style of the guy charged with building rosters, and the blessings of the man who writes the checks.

I like this plan, because none of these acquisitions will require dealing one of the Big 3. As for the second baseman, here's an idea sure to make the forum explode: the Sox have another prospect currently out-hitting not just the Big 3, but nearly everyone in professional baseball. Kristian Campbell was the Player of the Month each of the past two months at two levels, and is currently batting over .400 with an OPS higher than Judge or Ohtani for Portland (118 ABs). A guy that hot is knocking down doors. If Campbell keeps crushing for another month, the Red Sox could do worse than bring him up to blast away in a pennant race; it may take at least another month for pitchers to write a book on him... If you think the Henry Sox will worry about rushing a kid and ruining him for life, remember, he'll only cost MLB minimum wage.

Imagine a chief baseball officer, drafting for organizational needs! ... this may frustrate fans of the strategy of stockpiling high school shortstops, and trading them later for pitching (but those guys are already frustrated, since the last Sox middle infield prospect flipped for an arm may be Dubon for Thornburg, back when Dombro was clear-cutting the farmland). I like Breslow better, and it's not even the dreadline yet.

Hunter Pence had 30 career WAR, four All-Star games, two rings, five-time NL OF assist leader, with 162-game average: 23 HR, 89 RBI, .279/.794 in 14 years... ... stacks up similarly with another rightfielder (though lefty) Trot Nixon: 21.2 WAR, 20 HR, 82 RBI, .274/.828 in 12 years. Pence, who was taller than Nixon, was more of a diver -- like Campbell, who is all about weight shift on contact. Trot was better after he learned to lean back (after gaining considerable bulk in the bigs).

I don't care if 2020 was a Little League tournament or old-timers weekend at a Florida fantasy camp. That pitching staff on the Red Sox roster that Chaim Bloom assembled was the worst I have ever seen in my entire lifetime. Boston in 2020 gave up the most hits and walks out of all 30 teams in the majors. You can pretend it didn't happen, but it did. Those '20 Sox also gave up the most runs scored, with the worst runs-against per game in the AL, and only 3/100th of a run better than the Rockies (who played half their games in Jellystone National Park). If you don't believe me, ask the cardboard fans who got knocked over by the longball if they felt it.

Good point; it's hard to believe when he was still with Tampa that Bloom was plotting to recruit Story when he became a free agent. The whole replace our homegrown diamond in the rough with a fugazi scheme smacks of some Boston Ass VP conference with scatterplots on a Smartboard...

Bogaerts was a four-time Silver Slugger who won two rings in Boston. Nobody has come even close to playing at that level at shortstop since he left. The middle infield has been so shaky the past two years, it is hard to understand how anyone can think the Red Sox wouldn't have more stability with him on the field. And spare me the San Diego contract numbers, because every poster here agrees Xander wanted to stay in Boston, and probably would've signed for Story money when Bloom pivoted instead to a bad-elbowed, Coors-inflated strikeout king.

We only want him if he's hurt.

Giants had a blah first half, and Bailey has a history with some arms out in San Fran. What would it take to land Logan Webb, age 27, owed $82 million after this year... (besides, uh, Yankee ownership)? Assuming Crochet will cost at least Mayer and/or Anthony, maybe adding Webb and his large contract would be less painful in the parting-with-prospects dept. Not that SF would want to deal their ace, but Webb is the kind of guy the Red Sox need to target for the top of the rotation. In bb-ref's Similarity Scores, his #2 comp is Zac Gallen -- who beat reporters last year said is the kind of guy Boston needs to seek out. Btw: #4 is Jack Flaherty, who is also Webb's #5 most similar through age 26; Flaherty keeps reappearing in my posts...

Watch the All-Star Game. When Sale is introduced, announcers won't call him the biggest winner in the majors, or the guy who leads the NL in ERA... They'll say, "Here comes Sale, the 2.23 FIPPER and the 0.95 WHIPPER!"

Monty! Switch-hitter! So when he makes it, the batting order can't be too left-handed or too right-handed...